challenge: end of life for 6.2 is premature with buggy 6.3

[Paul Schmehl]

--On Friday, June 06, 2008 00:19:05 +0200 Miroslav Lachman <000.fbsd at quip.cz> 
wrote:

> Paul Schmehl wrote:
>
>> --On Thursday, June 05, 2008 19:10:19 +0200 Pieter de Goeje
>> <pieter at degoeje.nl> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> There's a really easy way to test this. Build & install a new kernel, but
>>> keep  the old kernel around (by default it's in /boot/kernel.old). If the
>>> problem  is gone, do the upgrade as usual. If it's still there, you know
>>> upgrading  won't fix it and you don't waste time; simply rename
>>> kernel.old to
>>> kernel.  This even works with 7.0 provided that you leave
>>> COMPAT_FREEBSD6 in
>>> the  kernel configuration file.
>>
>>
>> It's not quite that simple.  To do that, I have to block out time to
>> drive 45 miles during my supposed "off" hours and do the upgrade there.
>> Because, if it breaks networking and I'm at home, the server will be
>> down for at least an hour until I can drive to the hosting company, get
>> access to the server and restore the old kernel.
>>
>> Again, I'm not complaining.  Just sayin' that sometimes stuff ain't
>> quite as easy to do as folks who are surrounded by hardware and test
>> platforms assume it is.
>
> I fully understand your situation, but I think there is still way to try...
> You can use `nextboot` command. If you install new kernel in to
> /boot/kernel.new/ directory, just use: nextboot -k kernel.new and then reboot
> the server. New kernel will be used for this (and only this) cycle. So if
> something goes wrong and you have any possibility to reboot server again (PDU
> or by phone call to collocation), you will be back with old good kernel
> without need to travel.
>
> I did it a few times and it saved me ;)

Thank you.  I was unaware of the nextboot command.  That's a valuable tidbit 
that I will benefit from.

Thank you very much.

-- 
Paul Schmehl
As if it wasn't already obvious,
my opinions are my own and not
those of my employer.